Multiple sources familiar with the situation said it was very likely that the general release could come within a couple of weeks, although one noted that internally at Oracle, release dates can have some movement. It's expected that 12c will offer support for Solaris and Linux deployments first.

An Oracle spokeswoman declined comment on Thursday.

Database 12c, which was highlighted extensively at Oracle's OpenWorld conference last year, comes more than three years after the launch of version 11g Release 2.

The impending arrival of 12c comes shortly after SAP announced its competing HANA in-memory database platform can now run its flagship ERP (enterprise resource planning) software. Many SAP ERP installations use Oracle under the covers, and SAP is hoping to lure those customers away, gaining the lucrative database license revenue Oracle now enjoys. It's possible that Oracle will impose a license price increase upon the release of 12c as well. Currently, a processor license for the enterprise edition costs US$47,500. It was raised to that amount in 2008.

However, it's also not clear how or if the pluggable database architecture could affect licensing costs or the licensing model itself.